Hey everyone!
As promised, here’s a sneak peek of the upcoming AirCode 2.0.
Let me know what you think of the feature here, and if you enjoyed that format 
Thanks!
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To summarise a few of the things new about Air Code 2.0 from @jfperusse’s demo:
- Air Code runs through VS Code now, not a web browser
- A lot more functional, letting you add, remove and see dependencies
- Provides the Codea sidebar on your Mac or PC
- Supports debugging! (See the video, it’s really cool)
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Excellent video. Can’t wait to try the updated AirCode. It’s nice to see you guys doing videos for youtube channel, hope more vids are coming from you with tutorials or something like this. I mean your channel was inactive for 6 years, hope this video means you are willing to revive it.
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Thanks @valko! Out of curiosity, is there any specific video/tutorial you would like to see on the channel?
@jfperusse - on the matter of tutorials I have seen little on the use of Xcode to simulate Codea on the Mac.
Other areas could include shaders, 3D and animation. Ignatz’s website covers a lot but Codea evolution has introduced many changes - then there’s V4.
@Bri_G There is no way for users to use Xcode to simulate Codea on the Mac. However, since we use Xcode to develop Codea, the development team can use the Apple Simulator to show features as if they were running on a device. The important part in the video is everything that is done from VSCode after connecting to a running Codea project. Users would be connecting VSCode to their project running on a physical device to:
- Modify the code, add or delete files, add or delete dependencies
- Control the parameters using the sidebar
- Use the Lua debugger (breakpoints, etc.)
I’m sorry if the video caused confusion. Ideally, I should have used a physical device instead, sharing its screen using QuickTime for example, but the debugger is not working on devices yet. We’re working on it 
That being said, I believe Codea can run on Mac, right @sim ?
@jfperuse - thanks for the carifiaction no apology needed for the demo., using the simulator did result in an impressive demo.
On the connection front, is it via USB, WiFi or bluetooth ?
@Bri_G Connection is over WiFi, using the device’s IP.
Excellent - many thanks.
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Codea can run on a mac, but only the v4 renderer (Carbide) is mac-compatible.
@sim - is that due to V4 addressing Apple silicon based hardware ? Does it mean older Macs are incompatible ?
It is due to V4 using Metal instead of OpenGL
@sim - thanks for the clarification.
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Quick update on this feature’s roadmap.
We’re currently making an important change so the Lua debugger works on actual devices.
We have a few bugs to fix as well, and then we can prepare an initial release.
We’d also like to add minimal support to Codea 4 before releasing the first version but this should be easy to implement.
After we release a first version of AirCode 2.0, here’s whats on the roadmap for AirCode:
- Improved VSCode sidebar with options such as opening a project selection menu (we would like to create something similar to Codea’s project selection screen)
- Don’t restart the project after adding a dependency
- Automatic detection of running Codea instances on the local network so you don’t have to type the IP and port to connect from VSCode
- Improve debugger watches support (e.g. displaying tables content)
- Make debugger watches editable so you can tweak their value while on a breakpoint
- Add support for binary files (seeing your project’s content image, and being able to add, update, or remove them)
- Add ability to create a new project from VSCode
- Add auto-completion for Codea types, and research if we can improve this further by dynamically asking Codea about possible auto-completions
- Add optional support for standalone projects (exported to XCode)
- Support for multiple projects running at the same time (multiple windows)
@jfperusse fperusse - Great, looks like an impressive list on your roadmap, hope it goes smoothly. Any idea on timing of first beta release ?
Like the export to X-code, anythiing to simpify that is welcome.
Thanks again for the update. 
@jfperusse I hadn’t checked the forums for a few days but I just have to say, this is incredible! It looked great just showing the editor and it’s various functions and then you come out with ‘just one more thing’ with the debugger. I wasn’t expecting that but I look forward to testing it out. Thanks for all your hard work 
I assume saving causes only the changed file to be reloaded, hence the removed function not being set to nil automatically?
Thanks @Steppers!
Saving causes only the changed file to be reloaded, yes. Deleting a file does not “undefine” what the file was defining in the global Lua namespace. Basically, when you do function MyFunction() ... end, you are adding a new global symbol MyFunction to Lua. For the function to be removed, you have to remove that symbol from the global namespace (e.g. setting it to nil).
Removing all symbols declared by a deleted file automatically might be a solution we will consider in a future update.
@Bri_G We’re getting really close to a release, so I think you can expect to hear back from us soon
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@jfperusse - excellent news, can’t wait to get my digits on it !!! Please excuse the expression,
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The new Air Code is available in beta. See Codea Air Code 2.0 - Beta for the details!